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A man has been charged with an alleged hate speech offence in relation to a protest by a neo-Nazi group outside NSW parliament in November last year.
On 8 November, about 60 members of the now-disbanded National Socialist Network stood in formation on Macquarie Street, allegedly carrying a large banner that read “Abolish the Jewish Lobby”. Police did not oppose a “form 1” application for the protest after receiving legal advice the banner did not meet the threshold for hate speech.
In a statement yesterday evening, NSW police said after an investigation into the protest and two speeches allegedly made by participants, a 32-year-old man had been arrested at a house in South Penrith at 1.45pm. He was taken to Penrith police station where he was charged with publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race and causing fear. He has been granted conditional bail to appear at local court on 3 June.
“An investigation into this matter was undertaken by the security investigation unit, counter terrorist and special tactics command, who sought legal advice in relation to the public assembly and content of the speeches,” police said.
The offence for publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race, 93ZAA in the NSW Crimes Act, was introduced in August 2025. The NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, told budget estimates in February this year that six people had been charged under the offence.
The National Socialist Network disbanded in January before legislation to proscribe alleged “hate groups” was introduced to federal parliament.
BHP cannot appeal against a UK ruling that it is liable for the 2015 collapse of a dam in southeastern Brazil, London’s Court of Appeal has ruled in a case potentially worth billions of dollars, Australian Associated Press reports.
In November, London’s high court ruled BHP was responsible under Brazilian law for the collapse of the Fundao dam in Mariana, south-eastern Brazil, which was owned and operated by Samarco, a joint venture between Australia-headquartered BHP and Brazilian company Vale.
BHP’s application for permission to appeal was refused at the court of appeal in London overnight saying there was “ample evidence” to justify the high court’s findings.
Brazil’s worst environmental disaster unleashed a wave of toxic sludge that killed 19 people, left thousands homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River.
At the London trial that started in 2024, lawyers representing hundreds of thousands of Brazilians and other claimants accused BHP, the world’s biggest miner by market value, of trying to avoid responsibility.
BHP, however, argued the lawsuit duplicated legal proceedings and reparation and repair programmes in Brazil. In the trial’s first week, Brazil signed a 170bn reais ($A48bnn) compensation deal with BHP, Vale and Samarco.
BHP said it was confident that work done since 2015 and the agreement with Brazil “provide the quickest and most efficient solution” to compensate those affected by the dam failure.
It also said about 240,000 claimants, representing roughly 40 per cent of the claimant class, had received compensation in Brazil meaning their claim will be discontinued.
Pogust Goodhead, the law firm representing the claimants, called the appeal decision “a further victory” for the victims and “a major setback” for BHP.
The initial stage of the case was to determine whether BHP was liable to the claimants, with a further trial to decide on any damages to be paid expected to begin in April 2027.
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
A man has been charged by police in New South Wales with an alleged hate speech offence in relation to a protest by a neo-Nazi group outside NSW parliament in November last year. More coming.
BHP cannot appeal against a UK ruling that it is liable for the 2015 collapse of a dam in south-eastern Brazil, London’s court of appeal has ruled in a case potentially worth billions of dollars. More details soon.
Penny Wong says the government is continuing to focus its diplomacy on fuel security as the situation in the Middle East remains “challenging”.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
